Picture Perfect Portugal

March 29, 2017

As an art director and self-admitted “fauxtographer,” I’ve scored big-time on this trip: professional photographer and Instagram-famous VK Rees is one of my Remote Year travel mates. I had already been following Vanessa’s Instagram feed for more than a year (I had stumbled across her account while searching for potential photographers for a client project many moons ago), and when I saw her name in our group, I harbored some hope I could pry a bit photography knowledge out of her at some point during the year.

Turns out, no prying was necessary. Within the first couple of weeks, Vanessa set up a workshop with anyone who was interested in elevating their photo-taking skillz. She reviewed each of our cameras with us one-on-one, gave us a handy guide to remembering the relationships between aperture, speed and ISO, and troubleshot all our technical issues. Plus, each month she schedules regular photo walks around our host cities. I am soaking up all she has to teach, and for the first time in my life I’ve been shooting in manual mode. Better yet, I’m loving the photos I’ve been capturing. Below is a selection of a few of my favorite photos I took around Lisbon. Also, because my family reads this blog (hi, Mom & Dad!), I’ve included a couple of fun pics some friends took of me. Some of the photos are from my iPhone 6, but most were taken on my new Nikon D5300, which has the capability of beaming photos straight from the camera to my phone. All were edited using either the Snapseed or A Color Story apps (or a combo of both) on my phone, because I’m too lazy to download them all to my computer and edit them in Photoshop.

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Meet Erica

While traveling, ERICA BROOKS has gotten lost on five continents, sick in four countries and mugged in one town, and each time she lived to tell the tale. Actually, Erica has found that such trials lead to the best travel stories, and this blog is the place where she shares them.